Dolson Sets The Tone For Powerful Win

December 29, 2012|Jeff Jacobs

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The beauty of the Stanford women's offense is rhythm and preparation. When it works it looks as in sync as the San Antonio Spurs and the Radio City Rockettes. On those days, the Cardinal could be sponsored by Arthur Murray Dance Studios.

When it doesn't work, when Tara VanDerveer's team does not connect, does not adjust much on the fly, the result can be as ugly as it is repetitive. And on this Saturday, when UConn executed its defensive game plan as well as Geno Auriemma could ever remember and when Stefanie Dolson demonstrated that to arrive in Storrs means to leave as a smarter, fitter, more determined athlete, the results can be epic.

No. 1 Stanford scored 35 points at home.

How's that for epic?

The last time Stanford scored so few points Wham! hit the pop charts with "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." That was in 1984. Wham! That was the sound of No. 2 UConn snuffing Stanford 61-35 to break the Cardinal's 82-game home winning streak and presumably to climb into the No. 1 spot in the national rankings.

The Cardinal scored the fewest field goals [11] and had the worst field-goal percentage [19.3 percent] in program history.

"Connecticut came in here on a mission. Mission accomplished," VanDerveer said. "We were exposed in a lot of different ways. It was a bad day."

It was a brilliant day for the UConn defense.

The Cardinal had one assist in the first half. The Cardinal had two assists in the second half. When you have a one-to-five assist-to-turnover ratio in a game, you know what you call that? Disaster.

"This is beyond a wakeup call," VanDerveer said.

Ogwumike had six of Stanford's 11 baskets and five of them came on put-backs. She finished only 6 of 22 from the floor and, relative to her teammates, she was on fire. The rest of the team shot 5 of 35.

Mikaela Ruef was 0 of 4. Toni Kokenis was 2 of 11. Josyln Tinkle, averaging 14 points, was 1 of 5. She had two points. Amber Orrange, 0 of 6, was averaging 11 points a game. She didn't score a point.

"There was a combination of what we did full court, how and where we trapped them," Auriemma said. "Sometimes we pressured them really hard, sometimes it was medium, sometimes not at all. I think we kept them off balance. They're the kind of team that relies a lot on rhythm, making moves and cuts. I think we disrupted them as well as anybody."

"I'm proud of what we did," Dolson said.

Dolson, the primary defender on Ogwumike, should also be proud of what she has done. She has estimated that she has lost about 12 pounds in the past year, but more than that she has distributed her weight in one fit, happy lesson in conditioning. She cut down on the carbs. She turned up the Infinity Fitness DVD.

"It feels great knowing two years ago I don't know if I could have done that out there," Dolson said. "It feels good to know what I did pay off. Playing someone like Chiney, who is extremely athletic, quick and can still shoot the jump shot. I felt I made her take hard shots."

Dolson found out on Thursday that she would be on Ogwumike.

"[Chris Dailey and Marisa Moseley] definitely emphasized what Chiney is good at," Dolson said. "I had a lot of information going into the game. I was able to keep her in front of me. She's definitely a little quicker than me, but I was able to read what she was able to do."

"Two years ago, maybe she'd blow by me."

Four different players guarded Ogwumike, and none of them was named Kelly Faris, the team's best defender. Bria Hartley was on her for a few possessions at the start before Dolson took over. When she went out for a rest, freshman Breanna Stewart covered Ogwumike. Morgan Tuck even had a shot for a minute.

"Dolson got help," VanDerveer said. "Every time Chiney got the ball, there were three people on her. We didn't help Chiney enough around her."

Faris, who played Tinkle most of the game, lost her on the first play for a basket, and, as VanDerveer said, nothing — nothing — was easy from there.

"We were trying to move Kelly some, like she was Lawrence Taylor," Auriemma said. "Wherever you put her, she's going to be really, really good. We had her on wings. We had her on guards. We had her helping Dolson and certainly Stewie with Chiney."

"Sometimes you can make it as complicated as you want. You can go into football mode, that we had all the matchups analyzed and ran them through the computer. It's not like that at all. Stefanie was going to guard Chiney until she proved she couldn't. The key was what was everybody else doing that wasn't guarding Chiney. They did a great job knowing when to help and when not to help."

And the key for Dolson, who finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds, was knowing when to help herself. Dailey had thrown her arm around Dolson on the bench in the waning moments of that bad loss here to end the 90-game winning streak exactly two years ago.